Bottle breaking device



Aug. 1, 19 39. A. FRITZ 2,153,026

BOTTLE BREAKING DEVICE Filed Ma rch 3, 1938 v ,2 Sheets-Sheet l INVENTOR ill/1M FRI 2,

Patented Aug. 1, 1939 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE 4 Claims.

:As is well known, it is required of people engaged in dispensing certain beverages such as whiskey that the bottle from which the whiskey is dispensed be broken beyond repair immediately when all of its contents have been used up, the purpose being to prevent unauthorized refilling of the bottle by unscrupulous persons who may reclaim bottles on which the name of reputable manufacturers or wellknown brands are indelibly stamped and palm off inferior substitutes as and for the original brand of beverage. To this; end it is necessary to provide means for efiectively, safely and expeditiously breaking such bottles as soon as they are emptied and before they are disposed of. With this in view several attempts have been made to provide means for breaking bottles but all such means have. been defective in one respect or another such as the expense of production, or the difiiculty of operation, or the like.

It is therefore the object of my invention to produce a bottle breaking device which is sturdy, which insures adequate breaking of, the bottle with minimum eifort, which is at least partly automatic in its operation, which affords complete safetyto the operator, and the mechanical or operating parts of which are adapted to be incorporated in or carried by the cover of standard ash or garbage cans which are now on the market and which are the receptacles now universally employed for receiving refuse pending its removal by the street cleaners. By this construction, not only do I avoid the necessity of making any. special containers, but I am enabled to sell only the cover part so that the purchaser mayv apply the cover on standard receptacles already in use. Furthermore, according to my invention, once the bottles have been brokenthe pieces donot have to be transferred from the bottle breaking device proper into another receptacle which is a dangerous operation, but only the cover which carries the operating mechanism is removed and the ash can or other receptacle .is placed on the sidewalk or wherever it has to .be. placed for removal.

My invention further includes means for automatically holding the bottle under sufficient pressure during the breaking operation, and means for automatically dropping the broken bottle or the pieces thereof into the receptacle and away from the working parts.

Other features of my invention will be more clearly understood from the following specification and the accompanying drawings in which- Fig. lreprescnts a horizontal section ota bottle breaking device embodying my invention, the same being taken along the line |l of Fig. 2.

Fig. 2 represents a vertical section along the line 2-2 of Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 represents a section on line 3-3 of Fig. 1. 5

Fig. 2, I9 designates any conventional ash or garbage can of the type that are well-known and almost universally used for containing ashes or other rubbish, and which are seen placed on sidewalks or other places on certain days of the week to be emptied into the street cleaners truck. Such a container is usually provided with av cover and my invention can be applied to and incorporated in such a cover except that I find it less expensive to make a new cover embodying my invention than to modify or adapt the conventional cover which is sold with the receptacle.

In carrying out my invention I provide a suitable cover l2 which preferably has the pendant flanges l4 whichengage the inner wall of the rim of the can Hi to hold the cover l2 detachably in position. To the underside of the cover I I2 I suitably secure the pendant lugs IE and I8 which, if desired, may be cast integral with the cover l2 and which carry the rods and 22 suitably secured thereto by the set screws 24 or any other. suitable means. .26 designates a carriage or cradle adapted to receive the bottle 28, said carriage having its wall sloped downwardly as best seen in Fig. 2 and having the bottom opening through which the pieces of the broken bottle are allowed to drop into the bottom .of the container l8. The carriage 26 is provided with the flange 32 which slides on the rod 20 at one side, and is provided with the boss 34 which is slidably journaled over the rod 22 so that the cradle 26 is movable in a manner here- I inafter set forth longitudinally of the rods 20 and 22. 36 designates a spring which at all times tends to draw the carriage 26 in the direction of the arrow 38, the spring 36 being anchored at one end thereof to the lug 40 and to the other end thereof to the apertured lug 42 which is carried by the flange 34 of the cradle 26. In order to insert the bottle 28 I provide the door 44 which is hinged at 46 and which is normally maintained in the closed position shown in Figs. 2 and 3 by the spring 48 which engages the pendant lug 58 at 52, and the other end of which engages the hook 54 on the standard 56 hereinafter described.

In order to open the door44 and in order to push the cradle 26 in the opposite direction to the arrow 38 I provide the standard 56 which projects through the cover 12 and which is provided with the operating handle 58. The standard 56 carries at its lower end a pinion segment 60 which is adapted to engage the rack or ratchet 62 formed on or carried by the boss 34 of the cradle 26 so that, as the handle 58 is turned clockwise, the

cradle 26 is moved in the opposite direction from the arrow 38 and, when the handle is turned in a counter-clockwise direction, the cradle is moved in the direction of the arrow 38 both by the action of the pinion 88 and ratchet 62, as well as by the action of the spring 36. Simultaneously with the movement of the cradle 26 opposite to the arrow 38, if it is desired to open the door 44 for insertion of the bottle 28, I provide the arm 64 which carries the wedge-shaped head 66, the thin part of which normally rides upon the arm 50 while the door 44 is closed, and the thick or enlarged portion of which is adapted to ride on the arm 50 when the pinion 60 is moved in clockwise direction thus pressing down on the arm 58 and pushing the door 44 up to the open position shown in Fig. 6. The breaking mechansm consists of the hammer 68 which is pivoted at 18 to the pendant lug 12, the hammer 58 having the shoulder [4 which is adapted to be pressed down when the knob 16 of the pin 18 is pushed down, so that, when a blow is delivered to the knob 3'6, the hammer 68 is violently impacted against the adjacent portion of the bottle. Since it is desirable to render the hammer 68 inoperative except when the door is closed and when there is a bottle in the cradle 26, I provide the link 88 which engages the lug 82 which is part of the hammer 68 so that, when the cradle 26 is pushed, on the way back, oppositely to the arrow 38, the shoulder '14 of the hammer 68 will be out of registration with the pin 18 and any pressure or blow on the knob '38 would have no effect whatsoever. In order to return the hammer 68 into registration with the pin 18 I provide the spring 84, by which, when the cradle 26 is moved in the direction of the arrow 38 so that the link 88 does not engage the lug 82, the hammer 68 is automatically returned to a position of alignment or registration where it can be operated by a blow delivered on the knob 16.

In order to support the forward end or mouth of the bottle and also to facilitate placing of the bottle in position for breaking I provide the bin 86 which is pivoted at 88 to the pendant lug 98 which is carried by the cover l2, and I attach to the underside of the door '44 the link 92 which is provided with the slot 94 which engages the pin 96 which in turn is carried by the arm 88 connected to the pin 86. Thus, when the door 44 is opened, the pin 86 is tilted upwardly to the position of the dotted line I00, and when the door 44 is closed the pin 86 assumes either the horizontal position shown in Fig. 5 or is permitted to tip downwardly to the position of the line 82 so that the neck of the bottle that may still attach to it after the bottle has been broken is allowed to slip off the pin 86 and dropped by its own weight.

The operation is as follows:

As shown in Fig. 1, the door 44 is in its open position and the cradle 26 is in its farthest position opposite to the direction of the arrow 38. A1-

so the pin 86 will be in the position of the line H38.

and the shoulder 14 of the hammer 68 will be out of registration with the pin 18. In this position the bottle 28 is inserted through the open door and the mouth of the bottle is applied to the pin 86 while the bottom of the bottle is allowed to rest on the cradle 26. The handle 58 is then turned in counter-clockwise direction thus closing the door and bringing the rear wall 14 against the bottom of the bottle in the direction of the arrow 38. This holds the bottle tight between the tapered pin 86 and the rear wall H14 of the cradle 26, and also the spring 84 immediately pushes the shoulder 14 of the hammer 68 to a point where it will register with the pin 18. A blow with the fist or with an instrument is then delivered to the knob 16 thus impacting the hammer 68 against the bottle 28. This breaks the bottle which allows the pin 86 to drop to the position of the line I 02 so that the neck and any portions remaining on the pin 86 are allowed to drop and, due to the lack of support, the remaining body portion of the bottle drops off the cradle 26 or through the bottom opening 30 thereof. The

device is now ready for a second operation, and by turning the handle 58 in a clockwise direction the pinion 68 engaging the ratchet 62 pushes the cradle 28 back, opens the door 44, and removes the hammer 58 from its operative position out of alignment with the pin 18.

It will be seen by my construction that it is impossible to break the bottle except when the door 44 is closed; that the hammer 68 is inoperative as long as the door 44 is open; that the tilting of the pin 86 facilitates positioning of the bottle while its tilting downwardly insures dropping oif of. the neck of the bottle; that the door is normally retained closed by the spring 48; that the hammer 68 is automatically returned into its operative position by the spring 84; and that the spring 36, as soon as the door is closed, automatically brings the rear wall I04 of the cradle 26 up against the bottom of the bottle to tension the latter while it awaits the blow of the hammer.

It will also be seen that all of this extremely effective and easily operated mechanism is incorporated in or carried by the cover l2 which may be the cover of a standard ash can or other conventional receptacle, and that once the bottles have been broken the pieces are automatically deposited in the ash can and the only further handling needed is to place the ash can in a position to be emptied by the street cleaners.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. A bottle breaking device comprising a receptacle cover, a door formed therein for insertion therethrough of the bottle to be broken, means for normally retaining the door closed, means under said door for supporting the bottle in a position to be broken, a hammer mechanism on the underside of said cover and operable from the outside thereof adapted to deliver a blow to saidbottle, means for opening said door and means for rendering said hammer mechanism inoperable as long as the door is open.

2. A bottle breaking device comprising a receptacle cover, a door formed therein for insertion therethrough of the bottle to be broken, means for normally retaining the door closed, slidable means under said door for supporting the bottle in a position to be broken, a hammer mechanism on the underside of said cover and operable from the outside thereof adapted to deliver a blow to said bottle, means for opening said door and means for rendering said hammer mechanism inoperable as long as the door is open.

3. A bottle breaking device comprising a receptacle cover, a door formed therein, a slidable carriage carried under said door, means for opening said door and for actuating said carriage into a position to receive the bottle to be broken, means for normally closing said door, means for moving said carriage in the opposite direction to clamp it against the bottom of said bottle, a hammer mechanism carried by the underside of said cover and operable from the outside thereof for delivering a blow to said bottle, and means for rendering said hammer mechanism inoperative while said door is open.

4. A bottle breaking device comprising a receptacle cover, a door formed therein, a slidable carriage carried under said door, means for opening said door and for actuating said carriage into a position to receive the bottle to be broken, means for normally closing said door, means for moving said carriage in the opposite direction to clamp it against the bottom of, said bottle, and a hammer mechanism carried by the underside of said cover and operable from the outside thereof for delivering a blow to said bottle.

ADAM FRITZ. 

